Donald Trump’s Big Foreign Policy Speech Was a Flop

With his presidential campaign listing dangerously amid a maelstrom of bad press, Donald Trump attempted to change course Monday with a major foreign-policy address in Youngstown, Ohio, where he called for a new ideological test for immigrants and outlined an international agenda he described as foreign-policy “realism.” The speech, which Trump read from a teleprompter amid mounting doubts as to whether he can stay on message, was billed as another pivot for the Republican presidential nominee. But it was also surprisingly short on policy or any of the new ideas that his campaign had promised.

Instead of delving into specifics, Trump spent the lion’s share of his time at the lectern elucidating Hillary Clinton’s missteps as secretary of state under President Barack Obama. When the presidential hopeful did eventually get around to unveiling his policy plan, he presented few details and a number of contradictions. He argued that he was against the Iraq war from the beginning (he wasn’t) but that the United States should have seized Iraq’s oil, while also stressing that the “era of nation building will be brought to a very swift and decisive end.” Trump, who has in the past demonstrated a questionable understanding of geopolitics, also reversed his previous position in opposition to NATO, explaining that he would work with the military alliance to defeat ISIS. He also claimed that he would mend relations with Russia, which is actively working to undermine NATO.

Trump’s expanded immigration plan, which he outlined Monday, was similarly short on details. The billionaire real-estate mogul promised to implement what he described as “extreme vetting” of people trying to enter the U.S., and said he would temporarily suspend immigration from select countries. Though he did not provide a list of banned countries, Trump said, if he were elected, the U.S. would “stop processing visas” from places “where adequate screening cannot take place.” He also said that his administration would put in place an ideological test to screen out terrorist “sympathizers” as well as any people “who have hostile attitudes toward our country or its principles, or who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law.” Only those expected to “embrace a tolerant American society should be issued visas,” he added. Trump aides told the Associated Press that the vetting process would rely on questionnaires, social-media activity, and interviews with family and friends, which is similar to how the U.S. visa application process already works.

Trump’s much-hyped speech, which echoed the same fearful and anti-immigrant themes that have been a cornerstone of his campaign, is unlikely to move the needle after several weeks of bad press and worse polls. Last week, more than 70 Republican congressmen and staffers penned an open letter to Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus, urging him to pull funding from Trump and redirect it toward senators and representatives who are vulnerable in the upcoming election. The public outcry came after Trump committed a number of political gaffes, including calling President Obama the “founder of ISIS,” implying that “Second Amendment people” could assassinate his rival Hillary Clinton, and doubling down on his attacks on the family of a Muslim-American soldier who was killed in Iraq. The candidate’s problems deepened on Sunday when The New York Times reported that Paul Manafort, the campaign chair tasked with salvaging Trump’s campaign, was designated to receive $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments for work he did on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. (Manafort has denied he received any money off the books.)

Even Trump’s staffers are reportedly growing frustrated with their candidate, whose self-destructive impulses appear to be a defining feature, not a bug of his campaign. Trump himself seems reluctant to change, despite Clinton’s double-digit lead in the polls in a number of battleground states. “I’ll just keep doing the same thing I’m doing right now,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC. “And at the end, it’s either going to work, or I’m going to, you know, I’m going to have a very, very nice, long vacation.”